Coronavirus vaccine myths shattered by experts

Skepticism towards vaccines and outright anti-vaccination sentiment have become rife in recent months, with more and more members of the public questioning not only the effectiveness of vaccines, but also their development practices, their standards of security and their objectives.

The rapid development of coronavirus vaccines over the past year, an urgent task given the devastation of lives and livelihoods caused by the global pandemic, has made them a prime target for hesitation and myth. .

But misinformation and misinformation that cast doubt on safety and effectiveness can put lives at risk.

The World Health Organization has said vaccine hesitancy was among its top 10 threats to global health in 2019. Vaccination, she said, “prevents 2-3 million deaths per year, and another 1.5 million could be avoided if global immunization coverage improved. “

When it comes to Covid-19 vaccines, experts and public health officials say it’s crucial to tackle disinformation (false or inaccurate information) and more harmful disinformation (i.e. from false information intended to deceive people) which spread about the shots being deployed. . Here are some of the main myths circulating about coronavirus vaccines:

Made: The coronavirus vaccines that are being deployed have undergone strict and rigorous clinical trials involving thousands of human participants after the first animal trials.

Vaccine makers have insisted that no corners were cut, and test results have proven the vaccines to be safe and effective. Before being cleared for use, data from trials of vaccines – such as those manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca – came under rigorous scrutiny by regulators , including the United States Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and Great Britain. Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency.

In advanced clinical trials, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were found to be 95% and 94.1% effective in preventing serious Covid-19 infection, respectively. The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has been shown to have an average effectiveness of 70%.

When the UK became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in early December, Dr June Raine, chief executive of the UK’s MHRA, said no wedge had been cut in his approval, saying experts had worked “around the clock, carefully and methodically, examining tables, analyzes and graphs for each piece of data.”

Scientists and clinicians at the MHRA carried out a “continuous review” of the data as they were made available during clinical trials, thus enabling it to speed up its evaluation of the vaccine and to decide to authorize it. This was essential, the MHRA said, given the public health emergency.

Made: The coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna contain messenger RNA (or mRNA) that tells our cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response. This boosts immunity against the virus that causes Covid-19.

The mRNA (i.e. instructions) from a Covid-19 vaccine never enters the cell nucleus, where our DNA is stored, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

“This means that mRNA cannot in any way affect or interact with our DNA. Instead, Covid-19 mRNA vaccines work with the body’s natural defenses to safely develop immunity against disease.” Plus, immune cells break down and get rid of mRNA soon after you finish using the instructions. Learn more about the CDC here.

Made: Some women fear that the coronavirus vaccine could harm their fertility and there has been a mass of misinformation online about this. Indeed, on Tuesday, the UK’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Midwives released a statement on Covid-19 vaccinations, fertility and pregnancy.

In it, Dr Edward Morris, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said: “We want to reassure women that there is no evidence to suggest that Covid-19 vaccines will affect fertility. Claims of any effect of Covid-19 vaccination on fertility are speculative and not supported by any data. “

He continued, “There is no biologically plausible mechanism by which current vaccines would impact women’s fertility. No evidence has been presented that women who were vaccinated continued to have problems. fertility.”

Fact: The truth is that there is limited data on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines for pregnant women, the CDC says on its website.

Among the available data from animal studies, “no safety concerns have been demonstrated in rats given the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy; studies on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are ongoing”, the CDC said.

Studies in pregnant women are planned and the two vaccine makers are monitoring people in clinical trials who have become pregnant, he added.

In the UK, where the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are currently being rolled out, the government says: “The vaccines have not yet been tested during pregnancy, so until more information is available. available, pregnant women should not routinely receive this vaccine. “

Nonetheless, the government notes that evidence from non-clinical studies of Pfizer-BioNTech and University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines has been reviewed by WHO and regulators around the world, and has “not raised any concern “about safety during pregnancy.

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, which advises the government on its vaccination strategy, “recognized that the potential benefits of vaccination are particularly important for some pregnant women”, including those at very high risk of catch the infection or those conditions that put them at high risk of suffering from serious complications from Covid-19. In these cases, the government recommends that women discuss a possible vaccination with their doctor.

Made: Even if you are immune to Covid-19, it is possible that you will pass the virus on to others. We still don’t know how vaccination against Covid-19 affects transmission and until we do – and although many people are not vaccinated – people are urged to follow social distancing guidelines, to wear face masks and wash your hands to avoid spreading the virus. .

Made: You cannot get Covid-19 from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccines because they do not contain live virus. Meanwhile, the University of Oxford’s Vaccine Knowledge Project explains that the active ingredient in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine “is made from a modified adenovirus that causes colds in chimpanzees. This virus has been modified so as not to cause infection. It is used to provide the genetic code for the coronavirus spike protein. “